Budd's Bogs 3/26--Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Louisiana Waterthrush

Any time I'm offered the opportunity of birding a hot spot like Budd's Bogs, which is private land, I jump.  Budd's is one of the largest cranberry producers around here, with a variety of habitats. I met Steve and Matt at 5:45 AM on Big Hill Road and we got in Steve's vehicle, stopping first on Retreat Road for Eastern Screech-Owl which was very cooperative after about 5 minutes of listening. Almost as soon as we were on the bogs, we had Great Horned Owl, so that made it worth getting up well before dawn. 

But I had those birds for the year. The interesting birds, to me, were, first, the Barn Swallow that flew over us fairly early in the trip; easy to pick out against all the Tree Swallows swooping around a gnat hatch over one of the flooded bogs. Whether that was on the only Barn Swallow of the day was hard to tell, since we had another later in the morning over another bog. 

Then, after a fairly long walk along a wooded trail that ran next to a reservoir (lots of Ring-necked Ducks and Wood Ducks) we came to a spot that Steve was fairly confident we would hear Louisiana Waterthrush. And he was, of course, right--helps to bird with an expert. Not one, but two of the birds were singing, establishing territory. Not that I spend a lot of time worrying about early dates for birds but according to my records, this was the earliest in the year I'd ever come across a Louie. What I do pay attention to though is county birds and this was, a slight surprise to me, a Burlington County lifer.  

Finally, back to the swallows. After going through what seemed our third weather front (calm, then, wind and drizzle, then back to sunny but windy) we found a goodly number of Tree Swallows over another water source and among them, hard to pick out at first since they were zipping around pretty good, was my FOY Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Later, over a huge hump of dirt where Steve says they tend to nest (along with kingfishers) we came across a second bird, a much better look for me as it flew directly overhead.

9 species of sparrows and 7 raptors (if you count vultures as raptors) filled out our list. Matt & Steve had 61 species, I only could count 60 because I missed the Blue-winged Teal that flew out of a bog with flock of Woodies. 

Canada Goose  25
Wood Duck  15
Mallard  6
American Black Duck  7
Green-winged Teal  8
Ring-necked Duck  10
duck sp.  3
Wild Turkey  1 Heard
Mourning Dove  7
Killdeer  5
Great Blue Heron  4
Black Vulture  9
Turkey Vulture  16
Northern Harrier  3
Cooper's Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  2
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Eastern Screech-Owl  1
Great Horned Owl  1
Belted Kingfisher  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  4
Downy Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  3
Northern Flicker  13
Eastern Phoebe  9
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  3
Fish Crow  18
crow sp.  4
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
Tree Swallow  20
Barn Swallow  1     1+, early, seen at two locations
Golden-crowned Kinglet  4
White-breasted Nuthatch  3
Winter Wren  3
Carolina Wren  6
European Starling  15
Eastern Bluebird  2
Hermit Thrush  4
American Robin  4
House Sparrow  1
American Goldfinch  3
Chipping Sparrow  1     Wells
Field Sparrow  2
Fox Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  6
White-crowned Sparrow  2
White-throated Sparrow  4
Savannah Sparrow  23
Song Sparrow  25
Swamp Sparrow  9
Red-winged Blackbird  200
Brown-headed Cowbird  15
Rusty Blackbird  40     40+
Common Grackle  75
Louisiana Waterthrush  2     early, normal breeding spot for this species
Pine Warbler  8
Yellow-rumped Warbler  30
Northern Cardinal  4